Forbes Asia Fab 50: China beats them all

Forbes magazine just published its “Asia Fab 50” ranking of Asia-Pacific’s best big publicly-traded companies for the 10th time. Despite the recent news about steeply declining share prices at Shanghai stock exchange, the People’s Republic clearly dominates this year’s ranking: 25 out of 50 companies are from China.

Chinese domination

Chinese companies do not only dominate the ranking in the number of ranked companies but also in terms of the best performing companies. The internet company Tencent Holdings is the most valuable company in the ranking (market value $ 180.1 bn), technology company Lenovo the biggest company (sales $ 46.3 bn). The second-biggest national player is India with 10 companies in the ranking. These results clearly reflect the economic shift that has taken place in Asia-Pacific within the last ten years. This becomes even clearer if you take a look at the 2005 results. Ten years ago, twelve companies came from Japan (today only one) and 10 were Australian (today none).

Pharma/health care sector very prominent

When it comes to industries, the pharma/health care sector is appearing the most often in the ranking. Six companies are pharmaceutical companies, two from hospital/nursing management and one drug store chain. In the first edition of the ranking only one company was from the pharma/health care sector.

Methodology

In order to be ranked, companies must have been publicly-traded for at least one year and have a market cap or annual revenue of $ 3 bn or more. Companies fulfilling these conditions are evaluated using a dozen financial measures. State-owned or highly-indebted companies and companies owned by more than 50% by a parent company are culled from the ranking. The result is – according to Forbes – a “best of the best of the region”. The full list can be accessed here.

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About Tobias Bielenstein

Tobias Bielenstein is Co-Owner and Managing Partner of Branding-Institute AG since 2014, being a partner at Branding-Institute since 2009. He is consulting global large-scale and mid-sized corporations as well as international organizations and associations in the fields of strategic communications, brand & reputation management and integrated CSR.